Obertauern, Flachau and Zauchensee report (Warning long)

A snowHead

Resort: Obertauern with a bit on Flachau and Zauchensee

Country: Austria

Domain: Obertauern is on its own but can share a pass with Salzburgerland. Flachau and Zauchensee are part of the Ski Amade.

Author: T Bar

Date: Third week Feb 2006

Our holiday: This was a family ski holiday for a couple of families with 9-11 year old children with an emphasis on relaxing skiing.

Basics : Obertauern is situated on the Tauern pass about 90km south of Salzburg which is the nearest airport. We flew to Munich, which is about 270km away and hired a car. Motorway most of the way but the road up is liable to drifting and snow chains may be necessary.

Lift system : There was one high capacity (8 man) gondola and the rest were mainly high speed high capacity chairs (often with covers and soft seats, one with heated seats.) supplemented by a few lower capacity ones and a few non essential tows. The lift system worked well with very few queues in what was a high season week. The snow elsewhere in the region was good though and I believe Obertauern may come under pressure when nearby areas are short of snow.

The terrain : Obertauern fits around 100km of piste into a fairly compact area on either side of the road through the resort (There are bridges and lifts over the road so there is no involvement with traffic).Pistes are facing in most directions so late in the season you can probably pick decent snow by choosing an appropriate run.
The majority of the skiing is above the treeline with only a few trees for bad weather/ bad light days.

The resort is at 1700m and the top lift at around 2300m so the vertical extent of the runs is not large and compared with many resorts the runs are short, but the quality of the snow is good back to resort level. The variety of the runs is very good with a couple of genuinely marked black runs and a very good variety of red and blue runs. The signature run of the resort which appears on all the post cards is a north facing black run with a steepish pitch that is avoidable near the bottom.

The snow : It was snowing lightly on arrival and we had good snow for the entire week. The resort has a reputation for good snow though being stuck on the pass bad weather days are also fairly frequent according to a regular visitor I spoke to.

Off-piste : There is a lot of easy safe off piste between the pistes that is widely skied and very enjoyable. Some slopes are quite exposed to the strong winds that were prevalent during our visit and judging by the lack of snow cover had been prior to our arrival.
A keen off piste skier will be looking to go out with the boundaries of the resort for longer runs and would require local knowledge for avalanche safety and to get transport back to the resort An instructor I spoke to said that there were some very good runs into adjoining valleys and further down the valley.

The resort : Purpose built, but built in an attractive style. I did not explore the resort much as I was either skiing or looking after children. We were self catering and the local stores were a little pricey and not particularly well supplied, we journeyed down to Radstadt for groceries where there was a well equipped and cheap Hofer. The ski shops close at Lunch time and also are only open till 6:30 on a Saturday for those hiring equipment. Our children were very happy with the skischool (Koch) various time options are available 3-6 days, morning or all day and lunchtime supervision all available.

Food : Excellent food and good value lunchtime eating but I cannot remember the names of the places.

Accommodation : We self catered in a good quality apartment hotel, not cheap but spacious and well appointed.

Costs: Eating at Lunch was very reasonable c10E for beer main course and coffee. Our apartment was not cheap but was good value the lift pass was 205E for seven days including a lot of other areas 20E less for the Obertauern pass. Children were approximately half price.

Conclusion: This was a great resort for family skiing plenty of variety for everyone and a safe environment. A couple of caveats in bad weather there is not a lot of sheltered skiing though there are some enclosed lifts. If the weather forecast is for unsettled weather and you have your own transport I would invest in a fuller area pass as there are resorts with more sheltered skiing reasonably close by.
For the serious skier I suspect the length of runs and lack of tough off piste might bore them for a week unless they could sort out the off-piste into the surrounding countryside which would generally entail local knowledge of at least transport back and unless experienced in navigation of a guide as well. For me there was plenty to amuse myself for a week.

The last two days brought high winds and we ventured elsewhere otherwise we would have been happy to stay in Obertauern.

Flachau: We skied here for one morning. The area is part of the large ski amade and links with Wagrain and Alpendorf and is fairly extensive. My report however will be short. We arrived at a roadside station just off the A10 Auotobahn and could use the full area pass from Obertauern. The area appeared to be made up of very gentle skiing cut through the trees following the fall line. The car park was very busy with Dutch cars and all the lifts on the hill had significant (10-15+minute) queues. Although the lifts were high capacity they did not cover much vertical terrain due to the gentle slopes and resultant runs were short. Given the extensive queuing and busy slopes, together with the somewhat limited nature of the skiing we decided after a couple of hours to look elsewhere. In the time available I clearly could not explore all the terrain but I would think carefully before going here if you want moderately testing skiing and would look at when the Dutch holidays fall as well!

Zauchensee: Is just around the corner from Flachau (About 20 minute drive) and links up with an off shoot of Flachau (Flachauwinkl) over the hill, but the skiing has an entirely different feel. It was an attractive purpose built station at the head of a valley at 1300m. There is a modest area of skiing around the head of the valley with slopes facing East South and North.
The lift system was good with virtually no queuing on our visit (Friday afternoon and Saturday). The top of the lift system, Gamskogel reached nearly 2200m and served a world cup downhill run. The pistes were varied, interesting and attractive with areas both above and below the tree line. There was a good variety of run though the blacks were not particularly steep. There looked to be potential for good off piste particularly through the trees though there were notices up forbidding it (Judging by the tracks these were not always obeyed, in the interests of conservation and being law abiding we did). There was a very good reddish ski route from near the top of Gamskogel to the resort which was deserted and very attractive.

As an area in itself it is possibly a little small for some for a weeks holiday but it has a lot of variety and would make a very good spot for a short break. It is just up the road from Altenmarkt which would be an attractive place to stay.

Help!!

Obertauern, Flachau and Zauchensee report (Warning long)

snowHeads Forum Index >>> Resort Reviews and Trip Reports